Actual pic from Filipino gun seller. Made by licensed manufacturer. For what, I have no idea.

Btw Filipinos have some very good firearms making skills. This photo is not a example of the usual quality. It is not rocket science anymore. Merely a matter of getting the right steel (no problem) loading the material into the 5 axis CNC and the right file, then pressing GO.

This is a followup to my blog post several months back about dark markets.

Recently I started searching in earnest for the real life equivalent of the daemon network as described in the Daniel Suarez book series Freedom TM and Daemon.

What I have found aside from the dark markets are these distributed manufacturing facilities springing up all around the globe. Little one man or 2 man shops, making bespoke items.

In the beginning I signed up to add my shop to one of these services, and was greatly disappointed. There was no business available. Lots of providers, no customers.

Today however I am seeing a increase in activity by these sites. However it is still not quite to where a guy could cut the cord and work from his shop letting the network do all his sales for him. Yet anyways.

One thing I have found is that in my area there are many service providers listed who I know for a fact no longer do 3D printing. A 'proof of life' between the network and provider should be a requirement.

If one signs up to be a service provider, then they should have to take an action, by logging into the website or some other action to show that they are still accepting and capable of fulfilling work.

The other thing is that bitcoin or other dark market credit is still not accepted as payment.

However as this type of manufacturing grows the way people buy and sell and use stuff will change.

The other day I was speaking with the owner of what could be called a 'job shop' in Asia. His company does short production runs of things. Metal fabrication, machining, firearms, and other things are made in his 100 man shop.

The owner of the company has a hobby of 3D printing and building desktop milling machines. The conversation turned to how soon his shop would become obsolete with the rise of small bespoke manufacturing shops.

He speculated that he had about 10 years maximum before his type of manufacturing shop will be replaced.

This got me to thinking exactly how I would stock a bespoke manufacturing shop starting today.

Here are the tools I would use:

At least one if not more 3D printers. Something like one of my smaller machines and capable of handling polycarbonate and nylon plastics.

CNC milling machine. Mini mill, one of those $1000 specials with a 1.5kw spindle.

Desktop plastic injection molding machine

A small CNC laser 40 watts power that costs $380USD on eBay

One small lathe

In addition I would have the usual hand tools, drill press, work bench etc. All of this equipment could fit into a one car garage.

A shop like this would have production capability and be able to make a wide range of items. All sent back thru the network and exchanged for dark market credits.

The video shows how to conduct a proper surveillance in rural areas.
This includes proper camouflage, use of cover, and tactics as set down
in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) policy.

Monday, July 20, 2015

The day of 3D printed guided missiles is now upon us.

If one looks very carefully at the photo, It is obvious this model was created with a desktop 3D printer.

But how would one theoretically create such a beast in their own shop?

First of all one needs a engine.

This model appears to have a solid fuel design although a hybrid model could just as easily be made.

Low cost solid fuel motors can be made from sugar and salt-peter. Commonly known as Rocket Candy.

Rocket Candy is a type of rocket propellant for model rockets
made with sugar as a fuel, and containing an oxidizer. The propellant
can be divided into three groups of components: the fuel, the oxidizer,
and the additive(s). The fuel is a sugar; sucrose is the most commonly used. The most common oxidizer is potassium nitrate (KNO3).
Additives can be many different substances, and either act as catalysts
or enhance the aesthetics of the liftoff or flight. A traditional sugar
propellant formulation is typically prepared in a 13:7 oxidizer to fuel
ratio.

Hybrid motors on the other hand use a combination of solid fuel like plastic. This plastic could be Delrin, PVC, even rubber. Since we are looking at 3D printing, we could 3D print the core as well.

A hybrid rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor which uses rocket propellants in two different phases. - one solid and the other either gas or liquid. The hybrid rocket concept can be traced back at least 75 years.[1]Hybrid rockets exhibit advantages over both liquid rockets and solid rockets especially in terms of simplicity, safety, and cost.[2]
Because it is nearly impossible for the fuel and oxidizer to be mixed
intimately (being different states of matter), hybrid rockets tend to
fail more benignly than liquids or solids. Like liquid rocket motors,
but unlike solid rocket motors, hybrid rocket motors can be shut down
easily and the thrust can be controlled with a simple throttle. The
theoretical specific impulse() performance of hybrids is generally higher than solid motors, and roughly equivalent to hydrocarbon-based liquid motors. as high as 400s has been measured in a hybrid rocket using metalized fuels.[3] Hybrid systems are more complex than solid ones, but the significant hazards of manufacturing, shipping and handling solid rocket motors offset the system simplicity advantages.

The oxidizer for the DIY versions commonly is Nitrous. Yes the same Nitrous used to boost car horsepower in drag racing.

Body

The body of such a design could be 3D printed with the exception of the motor casing, nozzle, and fins.

One could possibly print it in such a way so as that the solid fuel core and the outer shell is hollow like a mold where one could pour Phenolic Resin into. A slow cure Phenolic resin that does not generate much heat could withstand the few second impulse that a small motor like this would generate.

Similar to this simple 3D CAD sketch I created below

Guidance systems.

This is where technology has come thru in machine vision that has flown under the radar.

The Pixy machine vision project (open source) has the potential to be uses as the guidance system along with some custom source code.
Code and more info can be found below.

Using a infrared laser and using this type of code (example here) a engineer could replicate a laser guided rocket.

This is a project that will take a certain level of advanced coding expertise and skills, but not out of the realm for a really good fabrication lab. A lot of this fabrication is beyond my skill level, However a couple engineering grad students could replicate this.

This is where the world is going to. The USGOV technological advantage is being eroded before our eyes and invented in home workshops.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Wired magazine came out with an article deploring the advances in tech and automation.

Is it not befitting that a magazine that purports to spread information and news about tech is abjectly taking a Luddite stance?

From Wired:

Simply put, as we getter better at automating routine tasks, the people
who benefit most are those with the expertise and creativity to use
these advances. And that drives income inequality: demand for highly
skilled workers rises, while workers with less education and expertise
fall behind

Those people in the DC, NYC, L.A., EU spheres are so concerned about the STUFF that those who do not work hard to make or who are too lazy to learn, that they completely overlook the obvious.

The tech explosion is LIBERATING to the lower classes.

For example, in 2008 advanced manufacturing tech like 3D printers was impossible to acquire if one had little money. Today, I can purchase a adequate 3D printer for one weeks post tax wages of a McDonalds worker in the US and 4 weeks salary of a Filipino.

Today, it is possible to build a injection mold machine from plans found on the internet and do low volume injection mold production. A feat that required the investment of $4000 minimum (plus molds) of a very old used machine from Ebay.

Similarly a CNC milling machine has dropped down to the price of $1000USD which includes spindles, and tooling to machine aluminum and plastic.

Step up a little more one can pick up for 2500USD one can pick up a Bridgeport style mill to make just about anything in steel.

Other advanced manufacturing methods like laser engraving, laser cutting can be now done with machines that cost $380USD on Ebay.

Yet still this obsession about so called inequality.

Wealth distribution is not just a barometer of societal health. It is a
critical determinant—and one influenced heavily by technology. “The
exploding wealth of the very rich is only one part of the story of
inequality,” explains David Rotman, editor of MIT Technology Review, in a recent essay on the topic.

This truly begs the question. Why are these people in the press and academia consumed with envy?

Matrix of Envy

Update.

Oddly Wired Magazine has pulled the article as of this morning it is not on their site anymore.

I am not the only one who called out the logical fallacies of that particular article and Wired was caught mis-quoting the original MIT source paper.